No not the cricket but a photo of Passion X on the cover of the latest Australian Amateur Boat Building magazine. The designer Dudley Dix has a good article on his radius chine method of construction and used a few photos of Passion X and his original Black Cat to illustrate the article.
Australian Amateur Boat Building magazine cover shot of Passion X
It has been quiet on the sailing front with the last race of 2017 abandoned due to a storm cell and accompanying lightning at the time skippers were attempting to get yacht off their moorings. The cell did pass but too late for the racing which was already appropriately abandoned.
For Christmas we headed north to Ballina for family celebrations and a good rest. After Ballina I flew to Perth for some time with my family there and am now back ready for sailing.
Today Joe Walsh had a look at the rig and we raked it back a few centimetres to try to gets some weather helm. The forecast for tomorrow is 20 knots so we should soon know if we have enough rake. The bend in the mast now looks more even so we will see how the draft looks.
The book the “Art and Science of Sailing” given to me by a crew member has provided much food for thought. It has the best description of the forces on the sail that I have read and a good scientific basis for how to trim the sails. Now if I could only work out how to invert the top of the mainsail to give windward forces on the head to counteract the heeling forces I would be happy.
In other Christmas reading I note the new Jeanneau 490 has a mainsheet bridle just like the one we have on Passion x and this is a yacht that weighs twice as much so it seems the idea of the bridle from the 349 is migrating to larger models.